I love ebooks, before I got my Sony Reader our house was so full of books you could hardly see the floor, the bookcases were long since filled!

Yesterday, I wanted to buy The White Road by Lynn Flewelling as an ebook. (I already have it in paperback, but I hurt my shoulder and the ebook reader is more comfortable to hold at the moment.) So yes, I would have been buying the book twice if I could.

But even though the paperback is available to UK buyers, it seems the ebook isn't. I've lost count how many ebook sites I've tried, but I couldn't get an ebook copy because of where I live.

I know there are lots of different reasons for this, such as the author/agent hasn't signed for other territories or the taxes are different so the shops don't want to get involved etc.

That's all well and good, but as a reader it leaves me frustrated that I can't get the ebooks I want and am willing to pay good money for.

I'm a writer too and all the ebook publishers I've chosen, I have signed contracts for worldwide rights. Unfortunately, some shops don't seem to care and restrict the ebooks once on their site. I can't even buy a copy of my own ebooks on B&N for example. Some shops have even added DRM when the publisher hadn't and I hadn't signed anything that said they would have DRM.

Anyway, back to buying The White Road. Is there anyway I could buy this ebook anywhere? I'm at the pulling hair out stage at the minute

Did you try Kobo? I find it there (and I'm in France, so under similar, though not identical geo restrictions as you are) for US$6.29. What I've found is that when I order from them, I am charged the quoted price plus VAT for France (unfortunately, the full 19.6% on e-books).

Since they are Canadian, they may have special restrictions on selling to the UK, but they've been really good for my purposes. And oddly enough, their prices plus French VAT always seem to work out about $0.10 cheaper than the posted Sony store prices for the US.
Cheers,
Bev

Annette, I am also in the UK, I have searched my list of places to buy from & no I cannot seem to find it either. Sorry I know thats not much help!! I used Inkmesh as well & they list 3 sites but unfortunately all of them with Geo restrictions!!!!

I managed to get it from cyberread.com using paypal, but my address with paypal is the UK, so I think it was all above board and I was allowed to get it. It's so annoying when you want to get a book and you can't!

I managed to get it from cyberread.com using paypal, but my address with paypal is the UK, so I think it was all above board and I was allowed to get it. It's so annoying when you want to get a book and you can't!

take care,
Annette

Keep trying, though. I've found that different bookstores use different methods to determine "where" you are. The US Sony store goes by your credit card billing address and/or how you have registered your Reader. Kobo (and probably a few others) seem to use your IP address. I'm sure there are other systems.
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks, I'll keep Kobo in mind for future books as well. It seems you can get them some places but not others.

take care,
Annette

Another possibility might be Borders Australian site. I tried everywhere a few days ago to buy Interventions by Noam Chomsky, with no success because of geographic restrictions. But I was able to buy it from Borders.

Thanks, Alex, Borders Australia had the ebooks of The Bone Doll's trilogy, it let me add them to my cart but at checkout said they only currently deliver to Australian addresses, never mind that it's an ebook and doesn't need to be delivered

I seem to remember there was an option on paypal somewhere where you can click if a physical address is not needed. If I can find that I can try again.

A general question as I am new to buying protected-books (DRM) online. I am interested in buying a book from fictionwise this weekend. From reading the FAQ, can I assume that if there are geographic restriction it would be listed prominently on the book page or at least when I put the book in my cart? I had the bad experience of having my credit card debited by Amazon once and then not being allowed to download the book! Amazon did release the book to my PC finally (6 weeks later, with no warning) and I was totally confused...

Also, there is a 100% micropay rebate on the book. Am I correct to assume that I can apply the rebate to future purchases (at least their "multiformat" ones)? This is an expensive ebook for me to purchase ($20) so I want to try to understand the terms.

This seems a very good deal or am I being overly optimistic?
Thanks for any assistance!

From reading the FAQ, can I assume that if there are geographic restriction it would be listed prominently on the book page or at least when I put the book in my cart?

Yes. For example, the "61 Hours" page says (near the bottom):

Quote:

GEOGRAPHIC RESTRICTIONS: Available to customers in: US, CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgeorg

Also, there is a 100% micropay rebate on the book. Am I correct to assume that I can apply the rebate to future purchases (at least their "multiformat" ones)?

They can be applied to any future ebook purchase, except that ebooks with large micropay rebates only get the rebate when bought by credit casd or paypal (i.e. you can't use micropay to get more big micropay rebates).